Mega City Zero (IDW)

[dweezil2]

Like you say Blackmocco, maybe the AD version of Dredd is a tough sell.
The whole anti-hero thing seems to be a tough sell for readers used to more conventional heroes.

Even Punisher had a tragic backstory to mitigate his brutal evisceration of bad guys theme and Dredd doesn't even go easy on the innocent!

There's the whole fascist/commie element that much of American society seems uncomfortable about addressing in any form, especially entertainment.

Perhaps playing up the more heroic, Pat Mills idea of early Dredd is the way to make him more palatable to potential U.S readers, which in some ways, Ulises Farinas has done with having Dredd team up with the kids in Mega-City Zero.

[Professor Bear]

"It's not for us" seems like an after-the-fact justification for not getting it right, a notion supported by the multiple reboots to try something else - it might not be for us, but it doesn't seem to be for the American market, either.  Which is a bit barmy when you remember that (even now) so much of Dredd is derived from successful American movies, even the fascistic elements used a shield against criticism of Dredd's failure to crack the US market.

[dweezil2]

There's undoubtably a myriad of reasons why Dredd hasn't taken of in America, with his failure to rescue kids from a burning building on a regular basis being just one.

There's still a discerning element who "get" and enjoy Dredd just not enough to crack the mainstream.

[Colin YNWA]

I have no idea why Dredd hasn't broken the US market in a big but I'm sure its for more subtle reasons than the silly cliched perception of US comics being trotted out here. You could just as well ask why hasn't Corto Maltese made it big in the UK, probably 'cos he doesn't run around eating cow pie and causing mischief in a stripy jumper.

[dweezil2]

I have no idea why Dredd hasn't broken the US market in a big but I'm sure its for more subtle reasons than the silly cliched perception of US comics being trotted out here. You could just as well ask why hasn't Corto Maltese made it big in the UK, probably 'cos he doesn't run around eating cow pie and causing mischief in a stripy jumper.

A cliche is only a cliche because it's true!

A bloke down the pub told me that and I wasn't arguing with him-he was bigger than me! 😳

[Greg M.]

I don't buy the whole 'US mainstream comics readers don't like violent, morally-questionable lead characters ' argument - they love those kind of characters. Just look at the huge success of Deadpool, Harley Quinn and the morally-bankrupt Rick Grimes. Whatever the problem is, I don't see Dredd's bastardliness (bastardosity?) as it.

[dweezil2]

I don't buy the whole 'US mainstream comics readers don't like violent, morally-questionable lead characters ' argument - they love those kind of characters. Just look at the huge success of Deadpool, Harley Quinn and the morally-bankrupt Rick Grimes. Whatever the problem is, I don't see Dredd's bastardliness (bastardosity?) as it.

Yeah, but Deadpool and Harley Quinn are undercut with knowing humour and wisecracking, Dredd, particularly modern Dredd, not so much.
Grimes is protecting his family, Dredd hss no such affiliations, that in part was why the 1995 movie made Dredd emotionally bruised over the judging of his brother Rico, to soften the character, to make him more relatable to a mainstream audience.
An angle the comic and latest movie widely avoided.

[Frank]

There's undoubtably a myriad of reasons why Dredd hasn't taken of in America, with his failure to rescue kids from a burning building on a regular basis being just one.

You don't have to go back to Pat Mills for Dredd as good guy - Wagner and McRae's Shooter's Night (1879-1882) and Wagner/Cook's Student Bodies (1890-1891) feature Dredd making sure clearly defined bad guys (recognisable from real life) get their comeuppance.

Outside of the Dredd-as-bastard glory days of 1987-1990, all you need to do to make Dredd the straightforward good guy of most stories is chop off the final panel, where he makes a dickish joke about the perp smelling awful because he's shot off their nose.

I agree that IDW's appeals to the assumed tastes of US readers have resulted in wonky comics, but that doesn't mean trying to do something different is inherently mistaken. Year One, Anderson, and Mars Attacks were straight up Dredd, and they fared no better.

[IndigoPrime]

On US appeal, Dredd's world is also a mirror, showcasing in a black and satirical level what the US might become. Dredd is a cop, doing his job, in the sewer the USA becomes. I suspect for a great many people that alone is hard to stomach. It's certainly the impression I got from a lot of the negative US Dredd movie reviews.

[dweezil2]

On US appeal, Dredd's world is also a mirror, showcasing in a black and satirical level what the US might become. Dredd is a cop, doing his job, in the sewer the USA becomes. I suspect for a great many people that alone is hard to stomach. It's certainly the impression I got from a lot of the negative US Dredd movie reviews.

I'm sure that's a factor, but then the original Robocop had those elements and was a big success.

Maybe there's only enough room for one future cop in this equation?

Of course Murphy did discover his humanity by the end credits and the film didn't really spin off into a successful comic series. 

[blackmocco]

I don't buy the whole 'US mainstream comics readers don't like violent, morally-questionable lead characters ' argument - they love those kind of characters. Just look at the huge success of Deadpool, Harley Quinn and the morally-bankrupt Rick Grimes. Whatever the problem is, I don't see Dredd's bastardliness (bastardosity?) as it.

Yeah, but Deadpool and Harley Quinn are undercut with knowing humour and wisecracking, Dredd, particularly modern Dredd, not so much.
Grimes is protecting his family, Dredd hss no such affiliations, that in part was why the 1995 movie made Dredd emotionally bruised over the judging of his brother Rico, to soften the character, to make him more relatable to a mainstream audience.
An angle the comic and latest movie widely avoided.

On top of that, the characters Greg mentions are all part of a much larger universe of mainly black-and-white good guys/bad guys and inhabit an area somewhat inbetween. If Dredd is your main draw and the closest thing to a good guy, and mostly only by virtue of the fact he's less scary than his various adversaries, than that may well be a dynamic American audiences can't/don't want to grasp. Deadpool/Harley/Punisher are all portrayed with sympathetic backgrounds as to how they ended up where they are. Now obviously, that didn't work with Dredd in the '95 movie so perhaps there's something with the character that could be approached from a different angle. I still refer back to the likes of Cursed Earth which had Dredd enforcing the law but in a strip that doesn't really have any cynicism attached. We like the cynicism, let it be said, but perhaps an American audience doesn't.

[blackmocco]

On US appeal, Dredd's world is also a mirror, showcasing in a black and satirical level what the US might become. Dredd is a cop, doing his job, in the sewer the USA becomes. I suspect for a great many people that alone is hard to stomach. It's certainly the impression I got from a lot of the negative US Dredd movie reviews.

I'm sure that's a factor, but then the original Robocop had those elements and was a big success.

Maybe there's only enough room for one future cop in this equation?

Of course Murphy did discover his humanity by the end credits and the film didn't really spin off into a successful comic series.

But once again, Murphy didn't arrive fully formed as Robocop. He had a sympathetic backstory that enabled you to empathize with what he had become.

[dweezil2]

On US appeal, Dredd's world is also a mirror, showcasing in a black and satirical level what the US might become. Dredd is a cop, doing his job, in the sewer the USA becomes. I suspect for a great many people that alone is hard to stomach. It's certainly the impression I got from a lot of the negative US Dredd movie reviews.

I'm sure that's a factor, but then the original Robocop had those elements and was a big success.

Maybe there's only enough room for one future cop in this equation?

Of course Murphy did discover his humanity by the end credits and the film didn't really spin off into a successful comic series.

But once again, Murphy didn't arrive fully formed as Robocop. He had a sympathetic backstory that enabled you to empathize with what he had become.

Very true Blackmocco!

Dredd's a hard one to love for sure, but by Grud we do! 

[JOE SOAP]

I've never bought into the idea Americans "don't like Dredd", whether it be a niche character or not is a different question, but if Dredd is niche in America he's in every other country too.

[Frank]

if Dredd is niche in America he's in every other country too.

Yeah, it's not as if everyone at primary school was eating out of Dredd lunch boxes*.

You can see why so many people have wasted millions trying to turn Dredd into a thing though. It looks like a billion dollar idea, even if the fan base is only large enough to sustain one of those low budget horror films that are just night vision footage of things moving slightly in bedrooms.


* Burdis probably was